v MR. DARWIN S CRITICS 125 



harmonise with all that modern science can 

 possibly require &quot; (p. 305). 



I confess that this bold assertion interested me 

 more than anything else in Mr. Mivart s book. 

 What little knowledge I possessed of Catholic 

 doctrine, and of the influence exerted by Catholic 

 authority in former times, had not led me to 

 expect that modern science was likely to find 

 a warm welcome within the pale of the greatest 

 and most consistent of theological organisations. 



And my astonishment reached its climax when 

 I found Mr. Mivart citing Father Suarez as his 

 chief witness in favour of the scientific freedom 

 enjoyed by Catholics the popular repute of that 

 learned theologian and subtle casuist not being such 

 as to make his works a likely place of refuge for 

 liberality of thought. But in these days, when 

 Judas Iscariot and Robespierre, Henry VIII. 

 and Catiline, have all been shown to be men of 

 admirable virtue, far in advance of their age, and 

 consequently the victims of vulgar prejudice, it 

 was obviously possible that Jesuit Suarez might 

 be in like case. And, spurred by Mr. Mivart s 

 unhesitating declaration, I hastened to acquaint 

 myself with such of the works of the great Catholic 

 divine as bore upon the question, hoping, not 

 merely to acquaint myself with the true teachings 

 of the infallible Church, and free myself of an 

 unjust prejudice ; but, haply, to enable myself, at 

 a pinch, to put some Protestant bibliolater to 



